“Soul Speculation:
Dr. Maria Fee
on the Works of Artist
Theaster Gates”
Inspired Brunch Series
General Theological Seminary | Chapel
New York City | November 19, 2022
FSA inaugurated Inspired Brunch as a new program series in New York at General Theological Seminary’s historic Gothic Revival chapel in Chelsea, with scholar and theologian Dr. Maria Fee’s presentation: “Soul Speculation: Spiritual Formation in the Works of Theaster Gates.” In her talk, Fee explores renowned interdisciplinary artist Theaster Gates’s art practice from the perspective of “care, reconciliation and vivification of culture as a form of hospitality,” as discussed in her forthcoming book Beauty is a Basic Service: Theology and Hospitality in the Work of Theaster Gates (2023).
Reading his many projects as “places to encounter God,” Fee suggests that Gates’s labor (artisan labor; black labor; spiritual labor; social activist labor) are all aspects of his monkhood affection for art making and community organizing.
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“What if I were to say that I’ve underplayed the fact that I’m actually a Benedictine monk and […] that this work I have been doing, that we’ve all called art, was just a by-product of a mandate from on high?”
– Theaster Gates
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This program concludes with a Q&A discussion between Dr. Maria Fee, Tyler Rollins and Leeza Ahmady — expanding on connections between contemporary art practice, faith, and spirituality.
Image: Walker G. Fee, “Theaster Gates: A Clay Sermon,” 2022. Ink on Paper.
Special thanks to Dean Michael DeLashmutt and the entire team at General Theological Seminary for hosting and supporting this program, which was organized in honor of Theaster Gates’s first museum survey in America – Theaster Gates: Young Lords and Their Traces (November 10th, 2022 – February 5, 2023) at the New Museum in New York).
Watch Video Here: "Soul Speculation: Dr. Maria Fee on the Art of Theaster Gates" + Q&A with Leeza Ahmady and Tyler Rollins.
"Soul Speculation: Dr. Maria Fee on the Works of Artist Theaster Gates," 2022. General Theological Seminary, New York City.
"Soul Speculation: Dr. Maria Fee on the Works of Artist Theaster Gates," 2022. General Theological Seminary, New York City.
"Soul Speculation: Dr. Maria Fee on the Works of Artist Theaster Gates," 2022. General Theological Seminary, New York City.
"Soul Speculation: Dr. Maria Fee on the Works of Artist Theaster Gates," 2022. General Theological Seminary, New York City.
"Soul Speculation: Dr. Maria Fee on the Works of Artist Theaster Gates," 2022. General Theological Seminary, New York City.
""Soul Speculation: Dr. Maria Fee on the Works of Artist Theaster Gates," 2022. General Theological Seminary, New York City.
"Soul Speculation: Dr. Maria Fee on the Works of Artist Theaster Gates," 2022. General Theological Seminary, New York City.
"Soul Speculation: Dr. Maria Fee on the Works of Artist Theaster Gates," 2022. General Theological Seminary, New York City.
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